City invites public input on revision of cultural plan

COLUMBIA — The city's Office of Cultural Affairs is doing a public survey about an upcoming revision of Columbia's cultural plan.

Launched in mid-January, the survey will be available through the end of April.

People can complete the survey on the city's Web site. Hard copies of the survey are also available at the Office of Cultural Affairs in the Gentry Building at Broadway and Seventh Street.

"Since January, we have been meeting with the boards of the local arts organizations that receive city funding to gather input from them," said Marie Nau Hunter, manager of the Office of Cultural Affairs.

"We hope people will complete the survey within several weeks," she said.

Named "Creative Columbia," the city's cultural plan was established in 1993; it guides and prioritizes the city's arts and cultural programs.

The collected public input will be reviewed by members of the Commission on Cultural Affairs as they generate the next update of the plan, according to a news release.

"That input will then serve as the basis for discussion about how the plan will be revised," Hunter said. "It is important for us to look at what is changing about our community
and what needs and interests might be different and to consider how
revisions to the cultural plan might address those."

Last updated in 2005, the city's cultural plan has four goal areas: arts education, business, visibility and policy.